Hunters Tryst School Sports Day

Hunters Tryst did School Sports Day proud. It was always superbly organised, very well attended and presented with a sense of theatre. It was serious and yet it was fun.  There was drama, disappointment, glory and joy. Hunters Tryst School Sports Day on the former School Sports-Field Photograph courtesy Stevie Berry With the smell of newly cut grass and the marking out of the white running lanes for the 100 yards sprint and an oval track laid out on the grass field the sense of anticipation that we'd come to that part of the Oxgangs season was palpable. Several rows of school benches lined the whole of one side of the 100 yards straight facilitating the sense of occasion, anticipation and theatre. If parents didn't arrive early with their little ones and little picnics they were condemned to stand at the back and spill out behind on to the grass slope. Hunters Tryst School Sports Day was a rather glorious and fun Friday morning followed by a half day which for some years coincided with the last day of the summer term. Rather classy pencils were handed out to the winners of the races.  The pencils were purple in colour with the name Hunters Tryst Primary School emblazoned in yellow along the side.  Back in the 1960s these were prized items. Out with Crackerjack I’d never come across such a thing so they were rare and valued. Were they perhaps introduced in 1963? I think at the end of my first year (Primary 1) in 1962 the prizes were perhaps a blue badge for second and another colour for first place? I'm unsure how well the children from The Stair (Oxgangs Avenue) got on, on Sports Day?  The only slight unhappiness for me was that my brother Iain wasn't the most athletic of children. Although he struggled at Sports Day he had the right attitude really enjoying the occasion and took it in the right spirit competing with a smile on his face.  On one occasion he won either or indeed both the sack race and/or the obstacle race and I was overjoyed for him. Having tried to will him to victory for many years I got more pleasure from that win than any of my victories. My sister Anne came to school when I was in P5; she performed quite well usually winning a race.    Ann Breslin; Terry Workman; David Lines and Stephen Drysdale amongst a clutch of fine athletes There were some excellent athletes at Hunters Tryst – in my class, David Lines and Stephen Drysdale were scarily good and very fast athletes. I also recall Ann Breslin was a nice wee runner who went on to run for Edinburgh Southern Harriers. When I first began to go down to Meadowbank Sports Centre at the end of the summer of 1971 her dad sometimes gave me a lift back to the far end of Oxgangs Avenue where they stayed. Depending on the year the relay varied between being run back and forward along the 100 yards straight or around the oval track.  For many years our relay team of David Lines, Geoff Hunter, Graham McKiernan and I dominated however for some long forgotten reason – a dispute over running order perhaps? - but on one occasion I had a fall out and instead recruited a team of my own from the year below who were around six months younger than our class including Terry Workman, Kenny Ruickbie and another lad and took some satisfaction from overtaking my usual team on the last leg.

Running Away To Join The Circus!

In our class at Hunters Tryst Primary School there was a girl called Audrey Milne. She came from a good and well meaning family who stayed at Oxgangs Farm Loan. Audrey had several older brothers and a younger brother. I think they may have had their ups and downs as a family-their father possibly died when Audrey was quite young, although I may be wrong on this.

What was impressive was the way the family made a community contribution. Audrey's mother, Mrs Milne, was the Akela of the local Cub Pack which I attended each week-was it the Edinburgh & Craiglockhart 113th-but no, I've just been told (21st November, 2016) by John McDonaugh that it was the 105th and even better John's discovered from the mists of time an absolute treasure of a serendipitous find, a photograph of our cub scout pack from March 1966.

Back Row: Extreme Left 'Akela' Mrs Milne; ?; Norman Stewart; Harry Rookyard; Graham Robb; John McDonaugh; ?; Terry Workman; Mrs Milne's son
Middle Row: Michael Hanlon; ?; Peter Hoffmann; Stephen Drysdale; ?; Stewart Martin; Geoff Hunter; ?
Front Row: ?; ?; John Ritchie; John Kay; John Pantling; ?; Alan Gray

I only ever made the heady height of Seconder of a pack-Norman Stewart however was a Sixer, which meant he headed up a small group of six boys; I was therefore only the assistant to the Sixer. Clearly he had leadership skills I could only dream of-or perhaps he just behaved a lot better than me.

The Cubs were great fun and a few of us from The Stair attended for several years including Michael Hanlon and Iain Hoffmann.

Like most children and young people who attend youth clubs, sports clubs etc you never really give any thought, consideration or appreciation that Mrs Milne was giving up a significant chunk of her valuable time, not just to run the Cubs, but also the training and planning and organisation required too-it's perhaps a bit late in the day to thank her.

Some of the Cubs had an armful of badges-I'm afraid the only one I ever achieved was the Collectors' Badge. Collecting stamps did it for me. Earning the badge was quite rigorous-I had to travel down to a lady's house at Craighlockhart to be interviewed and asked some tough, probing questions.

Whilst I never got above assistant manager level at the Cubs or did well with the badges, I fared a lot more successfully at Bob-A-Job week-ironically the Cub and Scout movement fared less well! There was a prize for the Cub who collected the most money-one lad was absolutely amazing-completely out in front of the rest of us. I can't recall how many names and jobs that each card held recording jobs done, contributions made and signatures, but it was more than twenty-therefore at least a pound should be raised.

Greenbank was always a fertile ground for me-I had reasoned that few of the Hunters Tryst Cub Pack would venture that far and the residents were quite well off. What I hadn't considered was that I had probably strayed into the territory of a Greenbank/Morningside Club and Scout troop.

Once a job had been completed we issued a sticker to the household who would thereafter place it in their window-we weren't supposed to call at a house which had received a previous visit by a Cub, however I tended to feign ignorance.

Anyway, covering Greenbank, I soon managed to complete a card. I proudly visited Mrs Milne to get a second card and enjoyed the praise which I received from her. I was doing well with the second card when the attraction of all those bobs grew too much for me-my blood sugars must have been too low, well that's my excuse! Anyway, I'm ashamed to say I spent a few bob and came up with a cock and bull story about losing the second card.

I had an opportunity to make amends, but I'm afraid Billy Smart got in the way. I had managed to win the Edinburgh Cubs 100 yards Championships for our troop-the event was held at Campbell Park, Colinton. I was thereafter selected to represent the Edinburgh team in the Scottish Cub Championships. However, my grandfather had received free tickets to see Billy Smart's Circus held at Murrayfield-it clashed with the other event. I let Mrs Milne down again and preferred to go the circus instead!

The Blog Works Its Magic Rescuing Some Things From The Mists Of Time, But Not Everything Including Koolapop!

I began typing this as a comment response to David Lines' comments which were a very pleasant surprise indeed, but quickly realised it was going to be too large a response for the comments column; not to mention the need to get my elder son Will to install a widget to prevent the distortions which appear whenever a respondent includes an apostrophe (hint, hint Will!). Anyway, great to hear from you David after all these decades.

There was an element of serendipity in us being photographed with Rhona Clelland and Marion Scott at the Boroughmuir School dance as it was the photographer who set the group up-although I certainly held a candle for Marion and I suspect David was fond of Rhona-two very bonny girls so we clearly had excellent taste! I met Marion well over twenty years ago and I think she had three children at quite a young age.

David Lines; Rhona Clelland; Marion Scott; and Peter Hoffmann
Boroughmuir Dance circa 1969/1970

Similar to Rhona many local girls from Oxgangs attended the very well run Patricia Browne Dance and Ballet School at Churchill, my sister Anne included. Several of the girls went on to enjoy professional careers including Carol Ramage (4/3) in Portugal and also Audrey Smith (6/6 Oxgangs Street) who was my girlfriend at Hunters Tryst School and who I rather liked but lost contact with when she went to Firhill School and I went to Boroughmuir School. We met up years afterwards for a drink and went dancing, but by then she was engaged to an older chap. I always looked out for her on the New Year Specials where she was a member of the dance troupe. She had a younger brother Alan-the Smiths were a rather lovely family.

Audrey Smith, Hunters Tryst Primary School circa 1965/1966

I intend doing some future blogs on the very shops which David mentions-like him they are the most significant in my memory. Similar to David, but different because of staying at the end of Oxgangs Avenue, we mostly attended the other three main shopping locations-it was only during school lunches I went to the Crescent-as David say Cruickshanks' was excellent, particularly given its size-they sold Koolapop cola which seems to have vanished into the mists of time for ever; we also used to buy collectors' cards with a piece of chewing gum, including the American Civil War series.

I agree about the smell of paraffin-it was very addictive-it was from the dry-salter's/ironmongers that depending on the season of the year we used to get either Airfix balsa wood planes; fishing nets; or cinnamon sticks (for smoking!); Campbells' Newsagents was a regular, particularly on a Sunday-I can still picture old Mr Campbell who was a gruff, but pleasant character.

I think David arrived at Hunters Tryst around P3 or P4. I always had a tremendous respect for his athletics ability-he was the one individual who I always feared at the school sports in the sprint race, knowing I would always have to be at my very best if I hoped to win-most of the races between us were probably photo-finishes! Another lad in the class who I think was quite under-rated was Stephen Drysdale-I don't think he quite realised how good he really was, which was perhaps fortuitous! I met him thirty years ago playing tennis-he was a very nice guy.

Stephen Drysdale, Hunters Tryst School, 1967

As David says, changed days-I exchanged some communications this week with a lady in America just now who is a singer-she told me she used to stay at Capelaw Court (village in the sky)-small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it!